U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,987 discloses an analyzer for measuring white blood cells and their nuclei contained in blood using scattered light and fluorescent light from a measuring sample by irradiating laser light on the measuring sample which includes blood cells via flow cytometry.
The flow cytometric method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,987 is used to measure white blood cells which are approximately 10 μm in size. In the analyzer disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,987, it is therefore difficult to measure cells which are approximately 20 to 100 μm in size with high precision as in the case of, for example, epithelial cells of the uterine cervix.
An object of the present invention is to provide a cell analyzer and cell analyzing method capable of measuring cells which are approximately 20 to 100 μm in size with high precision via flow cytometry.